Questions for synthesists with ribbon controllers

[Folderol]

Hmm we do seem to have 'drifted' a bit

[BJG145]

Are you thinking of David Vorhaus' Kaleidophon?

Good catch.

https://www.soundonsound.com/people/david-vorhaus

[MarkOne]

No, the more I've thought about it, it was definitely 4 ribbons, about the height of a double bass and the whole body was basically a C profile PVC construction that probably started life as a length of white guttering.

This probably predates MIDI and I think each ribbon created a CV/Gate signal.

But I really can't find anything out there on the interwebs

Are you thinking of David Vorhaus' Kaleidophon?

YES! That’s it!

Glad my memory was not playing tricks on me!

And this is the BBC TW article I had in mind:

[BJG145]

Time to put some of these to work.



(Arduino with MIDI board, Teensy 4.0 with audio board, Daisy Pod, and an Axoloti donated via the forum.)

500mm membrane potentiometer and FSR on the way...



I swiped a spare laptop from work this afternoon, and just downloaded the latest Debian.

I recently took a look round the local Hackspace, a makerspace with 3D printers, laser cutters, electronics workbench and wood/metal workshops, and decided to sign up.



If I can't make a Yoshimi ribbon synth out of this lot then I'm a Dutchman.

[Folderol]

We will be watching!

[MarkOne]

If I can't make a Yoshimi ribbon synth out of this lot then I'm a Dutchman.

veel geluk

[BJG145]

@Folderol, dunno if you might be able to help a Linux newbie get started with MIDI...

I thought I'd give Fedora 37 a try, on an HP 250 G7 laptop. I've pulled in Yoshimi 2.2.1 and it works fine with the on-screen keyboard.

I've connected up a CME Widi X8, a class-compliant MIDI interface. I've also installed QJackCtl, where I can select it from the "Interface" drop-down, and a random synth called Qsynth which plays OK via a MIDI keyboard.

I'm not sure what settings I need for Yoshimi though...I've tried "Set as preferred MIDI" in the Jack and Alsa tabs. Do I need to change the "MIDI Source" entry from "default" maybe...?

Any thoughts appreciated, ta...alternatively I could try the dreaded Ubuntu Studio or pick up a MIDISport instead...

[BJG145]

*edit*

Forget that, wrong MIDI channel, d'oh. Success...! Awesome.

***************************************************

I've got a name for the ribbon controller...Morse Machine.

The Eowave Persephone...



...borrowed a feature from the Ondes Martenot - the "expression key".



In one of its modes, the right hand is used to play the ribbon, while the left hand triggers notes via this key. So I thought I'd nick that idea, but use a Morse key.



There's tons of the things kicking around on eBay; not much call for them nowadays.

[N i g e l]

Wire + Ring on a finger controller - if you like Messiaen about with modulation....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx7Vd6agALY

1:50 gets you straight to the good stuff.

Thats what it took to have a real performance instrument to mix it with an orchestra [There might have been a knee controller also] !

[Wonks]

[There might have been a knee controller also] !

Ni!

[ManFromGlass]

Nnnnnnni!

[BJG145]

At lunchtime I abandoned my Teams vigil to collect the Artiphon Instrument from MIDI storage silo #2. (My mum's spare room. It's okay; she says she doesn't mind.)

There's a lot of Linux distros out there. I hadn't thought about Fedora until Folderol mentioned it, but it looks promising so far. It picked up the Artiphon and Yoshimi 2.2.1 without any fuss for some plucked strings in guitar mode.

I need to investigate what it can do as a ribbon-esque controller next. Also, the membrane potentiometer arrived today so I can start messing with that.